Components used by other crafting classesIngots, Rings, Rivets, Plates

What classes should be Armorsmiths?

Gladiators (Paladins) and Marauders (Warriors) would benefit most from Armorsmithing. It’s a pretty narrow crafting class, which doesn’t offer much to others. They do craft the main hand arms for the most general crafting classes, Alchemist and Culinarian.

Again, every crafting class benefits / relies on other crafting classes for components, so it’s never truly useless to train Armorsmithing(or all crafting classes)

Armorsmith skills

Every Crafting (Disciple of Hand) class shares a large pool of skills, four of which are unique to each class. Below are the Armorsmithing only skills.

For the next five steps, Brand of Ice efficiency is increased. Increase determined by current progress.
Only one Name of the Element action can be used per synthesis.

Armorsmith Skill Discussion

Rapid Synthesis: at 250% synthesis efficiency, it’s the strongest progress raising skill. However, it also has the worst success rate (50%). Rapid Synthesis works well with steady hand (Increase success rate by 20%). Even then, this is pretty situational.

Brand of Ice: Like any ‘brand’ skill, this is almost always better than any generic synthesis skill. As a cross-class skill, this of course depends on the element of the item you’re crafting. Use it if you the item you’re crafting is ice element. (Determined by shard used?)

Piece By Piece: This one is a bit strange. It is a great starting synthesis move, specially when you are completing a craft which requires more than 400 points worth of craftmanship. Remember, it only takes into account the progress left, so if you are half way into your crafting do not use this skill as it will only progress 1/3 of what is left. Very situational, only practical for extremely difficult progress bars. Some iLvl 70 crafts need 4-5 synthesis to complete, this is where Piece by Piece shines.

Brand of Ice is probably the best of the bunch here (Having access to all brands is very useful). The usefulness of Piece By Piece is only seen in end-game crafting.

There are some changes in Live compared to Beta, which is what this guide is based on. Rapid Synthesis is now a 50% success chance instead of 70%, Brand of Ice is unlocked at level 37, and Piece by Piece is available at level 50.

Rapid Synthesis remains the most efficient synthesis skill on paper, but it has a high risk of failure and so it is best for quickly completing synthesis after maxing out Quality gains with an Excellent proc.